Help us to reach out to your local communities and forums. But most importantly don´t forget to join the movement – KING of the ICE 2018! #kingoftheice2018

Henrik Mård was crowned King of the Ice 2017

The King of the ICE 2017 was epic with leaders from three different countries. The guys from Poland came in strong mid-season with really nice sessions and as we suspected Jeff Brown and the Americans would come really strong at the end of the season. The second most represented country was the Netherlands with 10 riders, really impressive since the conditions down there has been far from optimal. King of the ICE 2017 was Henrik Mård from Sweden, with top results on both 5*10 sec and Alpha.

Team Sweden will continue the tradition for the second year in the row. Our aim for this year is to attract even more riders from all over the world.

Four disciplines will be included in the King of the Ice 2018 challenge:

SCORING:

FOUR discipline participation with ONE discipline THROWOUT allowed!
The BEST of 3 discipline scores will be calculated on a low point scoring system.
Winner of each discipline will get 0,7p second place 2p, third place 3p etc.

If you have no result in one discipline your points will be calculated as last place +1.
Obvious fault or incorrect figures will be changed, removed or not calculated.
Overall Ties shall be scored based on competitors NEXT BEST finishes within their 3 best disciplines.

The WINNER of King of the ICE 2018 will be the competitor with the LOWEST TOTAL POINTS.

REGISTRATION:

You do not need to register to join the challenge, your activity on GPS Icesailing will automatically be used.

You are required to specify your class of icesailing device in your GPS Icesailing profile for sessions to be identified through use of data filters on the website.

Select: “Ice-Snow Sleds-Windsurfer” for your equipment.
Help support GPS Ice sailing and become a GOLD MEMBER!
Help us to share the invitation on social media! #kingoftheice2018

A brand new Sail brand has just entered the market. The US based designer Stanislav Mostoviy, with background in aerodynamics, has designed a full profile wing sail. The idea of a wingsail for windsurfing was born in 2012 and the agenda was to develop a full profile sail and make it crash resistant and floatable. After years of R&D and hard work the patented design is ready for the market.

MW SAILS STORM – Size 4.5 and 5.8

Stanislav about the wingsail concept

Now we are really happy with all aspects of its performance. We have spent over 5 years of really intense R&D, developing a much better and reliable sail machine in all aspects. It is crash resistant, easy to water-start, very forgiving and fast. A wing sail has much more stability in all directions and doesn’t really have an upper wind limit.The wing sail have minimum twist and it rotates much smoother compared to a traditional windsurfing sail. After rotation the wing sail powers up in a very soft and controled manner.

Wingsails are completely free from leading edge stall

A problem with curved plate profile of a traditional sail is that it develops leading edge stall. Wingsails are completely free from leading edge stall, which means that the wing sail will continuously deliver lift and remain stable with a locked in position and remain on that position in all wind speeds.
There is no back hand pressure or back foot pressure and there is no different adjustments for different wind speeds – just one setup does it all. Our wingsail is a wind hungry machine that never overpowers.

“I remember in my old days sailing with regular sail 28 knots it’s like holding for your life ,sailing with wing on the choppy water 28 knots it’s nothing. Actually faster is better because on the high-speed when all forces equalizes drag and lift, everything become really quiet.”

How about sail sizes and mast curves?

Wingsail – Inflatable camber inducer

Storm is not sensetive to mast curve. I rig different masts on my demo sails, result is the same. According sail size: The rule for wingsails is simple – bigger = faster. But to go fast requires sailor strength. The 5.8 generate an enormous amount of lift, you must have body strength or weight to balance and control the power. Can a 60 kg sailor use 5.8? Yes of course if you like super speed and hardcore sailing. The 4.5 rig will give the smaller sailor a more relaxed, stable and controled ride.

The name of the sail is Storm, is that indicating that there will be bigger sizes in the future? “Yes there will be bigger size possibly coming this spring”.

Is the wingsail concept a game changer?

With minimum twist and an exceptional stability the wing sail should be a perfect match for ice sailing and the ever growing market of windsurfing foils. Other sail brands have adjusted their sail lines with a sail designed for foil-sailing. First out was Loftsails that just recently has released their all new “Skyscape”, specially designed for foiling with less twist and with a lower cut than we are used to see on a modern windsurfing sail. If the wing sail concept is a game changer remains to be seen. Stanislav is convinced of the pro´s of the wing sail concept compared to a traditional windsurfing sail and the more we learn about the concept the more we are convinced that the wingsail concept also would be a perfect match for foiling and ice surfing.

I got the opportunity to do some test runs with recently manufactured iceboard Bodom sled made by Finnish company called Airice Oy. While ice conditions and weather in Finland is as good as it could get, I couldn´t be more excited about the test. My previous experience with ice sailing is with Hiberna, and DIY “freeskate” iceboards.

Bodom iceboard – A three blade beauty

Bodom is a sled with 3 blades, wherein 2 of the blades is attached to the turning front frame and the rear blade is fixed. Board structure is frame-controlled, so that the front frame is pivot able and located in front of the main body, and not under it such in Hiberna. Steering centering and turning resistance is controlled by carbon fiber leaf spring set, attached on top of frame, so that steering response can easily be adjusted to match with rider’s needs. The body of the sled is made of carbon fiber and the shape of it is curvy, unlike other boards. It flexes slightly under the weight of the sailor, making driving response very pleasant, and the appearance of a sled slightly “aggressive”.

Bodom Iceboard in action – All pictures by Laura Pokela

The Bodom Iceboard – The first feel

The preferred test sled feels really fast and directional stability is good, but still very easy to maneuver. On the first try sled feels bit unsteady, probably because there is only one blade on back of the board, which primarily holds the weight of the rider. Since the back of the board doesn´t have stabilizing structure of 2 blades, the first gybes feels at the least little shaky and pressing the board too hard to turns may cause front blade get loose, or even cause sled to crash.

The Bodom Iceboard is very competent for high speeds and slalom sailing

After a while and getting together, the Bodom sled begins to feel natural and windsurfing familiar. Moving the weight in front of the board during the gybes removes shaky feel and makes sled turn very smoothly. Crosswind sections with Bodom feels safe, and the rear blade doesn´t spin, even when adding more pressure to it. Sled runs determined and predictably in each direction, and the driving position has more natural feel than in Hiberna. Preferred test sled had turning radius tuned to about 10 meters, which seemed to be very competent, as well for high speeds and slalom sailing. After short training, the sled was easy to turn to laydown gybe at full speed, without constant fear of losing grip. The feel and vibes are very close to windsurfing board. Initial doubts of turns proved to be wrong and the most fun part of the day was really the gybes. Truly pleasant sled!
On test day, the conditions were sunny and the wind was 4-7m/s. Test sail was Severne Reflex6 7.8m2

Flymount – GoPro boom and mast mount portfolio on Instagram

We thought that we would give you a picture of the potential of the Flymount and GoPro combo by publishing our Instagram feed below. The pictures are the originals and hasn´t been processed except for the cropping tool and some downscaling of the quality to be able to publish the material here on boardtests.com.

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Wizmount and GoPro 3+ and 4 – An awesome combo

To give you some ideas of the potential of the Wizmount we have published our Instagram feed below. The pictures and the videos that we are showing are taken with the Wizmount backpack and a GoPro 3+ or GoPro 4. The pictures are the originals and hasn´t been processed except for the cropping tool and some downscaling of the quality to be able to publish the material here on boardtests.com.

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